FEATURE:
Second Spin
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
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WHILST I cannot claim to be the biggest…
PHOTO CREDIT: Capitol Records
fan of Katy Perry, I do think that her third studio album, Teenage Dream, is stronger than critics gave it credit for. It is another album that got a mixed reception but fared much better in commercial terms. Whilst some have been a little negative regarding the 2010 release, the album did very well:
“The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 192,000 copies in its first week. It was later certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting 8 million album-equivalent copies. The album has gone onto sell 3.1 million copies in the United States, and charted within the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 year-end chart three years in a row. The album also sold 1.3 million copies in the United Kingdom, where it was certified four times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). By July 2013, Teenage Dream had sold 6 million copies worldwide. The album and its singles earned Perry seven Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Record of the Year. It also won International Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2011”.
I will bring in a couple of reviews for Teenage Dream - one that is more mixed and a positive one. I think that a lot of people who were familiar with Perry’s music were probably fairer than those coming to it fresh. With big Pop singles like California Gurls, Teenage Dream and Firework, there are songs that instantly come to mind and that we are all familiar with!
Maybe people dislike the bombast of Katy Perry’s voice or the fact that the production is pretty polished. In terms of its sound, it is very similar to a lot of Pop albums. It is a very big record in terms of energy, but there is some emotion and softer moments. Most of the best songs are taken care of in the first half of Teenage Dream so, perhaps, there is a slight top-heavy feel to it. I like the more under-represented songs like Peacock and Who Am I Living For? In their review, this is what Rolling Stone observed:
“Teenage Dream is the kind of pool-party-pop gem that Gwen Stefani used to crank out on the regular, full of SoCal ambience and disco beats. It’s miles ahead of Perry’s breakthrough disc, One of the Boys, with her clever songwriting boosted by top-dollar pros: Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Tricky Stewart, Stargate. In the 2010 style, her vocals are processed staccato blips with lots of oh-oh-way-oh chants. The tracks go heavy on Eighties beats, light on melody, taking a long dip into the Daft Punk filter-disco house sound.
Major themes include: how awesome it is having sex with Russell Brand (“Hummingbird Heartbeat”), how it sucks having sex with guys who aren’t Russell Brand (“Pearl”), how true love rules (“Teenage Dream”), even though it’s not like the movies (“Not Like the Movies”). Perry likes her songs chatty; in the kegger romp “Last Friday Night,” she chirps, “Think I need a ginger ale/That was such an epic fail.” Stargate’s “Hollaback Girl” sequel “Peacock” bites a drum hook from Toni Basil’s “Mickey” as Perry demands some action, chanting, “I wanna see your peacock-cock-cock” — subtle!
Her Christian back story only comes up once, in “Who Am I Living For,” where Perry riffs on the biblical story of Esther, the Jewish orphan who married the Persian king and uncovered a plot to exterminate the Jews. It’s dark and compelling, especially since she sings it like Rihanna. “Circle the Drain” — which Perry presumably wrote about her ex, “Billionaire” singer Travie McCoy — is even darker, a kiss-off to a rocker hooked on pills. But she’s more at home with the mall romance of “The One That Got Away,” where she and the guy get matching tattoos on her 18th birthday. When Perry sings, “I was June, and you were Johnny Cash,” it’s understood that she’s thinking of the scrubbed-up Hollywood version of June and Johnny, from Walk the Line. But that’s just part of what makes her such a true California gurl”.
I really like Katy Perry’s voice. I think she is one of the most dexterous and accomplished Pop artists of her time. Maybe the songwriting is not exceptional throughout (aside from Perry, there are quite a few others in the mix) and the consistency falters a little towards the end of the album. That said, Teenage Dream is not an album to be seen as weak or a guilty pleasure. It is a solid Pop album that has some standout tracks and, generally, is an enjoyable listen.
Not everyone was mixed or down when it came to Katy Perry’s third studio album. AllMusic were more complimentary when they assessed the album:
“Nothing comes naturally for Katy Perry. Blessed with a cheerleader’s body, the face of a second-chair clarinetist and a drama club queen’s lust for the spotlight, Perry parlayed all these qualities into success via her 2008 pop debut One of the Boys, an album that worked overtime to titillate. Working hard is Katy Perry’s stock in trade: whether she’s cavorting in the Californian sun or heaving her cleavage, she always lets you see her sweat, an effect that undercuts her status as a curvy Teenage Dream, the ideal she puts forth on her 2010 sophomore set. All this labor produces fetching magazine covers -- sometimes accompanied by good copy within -- and grabbing videos but it undoes her records, since we always hear her fighting to be frivolous. And all Perry wants to do is have fun: all she wants is to frolic in the spotlight, and she’ll follow the path of others to get there, raising eyebrows a’la Alanis, strutting like Gwen Stefani and relying on Britney’s hitmaker Max Martin for her hooks. There’s no question Perry is smart enough to know every rule in pop but she’s not inspired enough to ignore them, almost seeming nervous to break away from the de rigeur lite club beats that easily transition from day to night or the chilly, stainless-steel ballads designed to lose none of their luster on repeat plays.
Perry acknowledges some shifting trends -- she salutes fellow attention-whore Ke$ha on “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” replicates Ryan Tedder’s glassy robotic alienation on “E.T.” but tellingly avoids ripping off Lady Gaga, who is just too meta for the blunt Katy -- but these are merely accents to her old One of the Boys palette. And, once again, the music feels familiar, so Perry distinguishes herself through desperate vulgarity, wooing a suitor with “you make me feel like I’m losing my virginity,” extolling the virtues of blackouts and an accidental ménage a trois, melting popsicles, pleading for a boy to show her his “Peacock” (chanting “cock cock cock” just in case we at home didn’t get the single entendre). All this stylized provocation is exhausting, and not just because there’s so much of it (none of it actually arousing). It’s tiring because, at her heart, Perry is old-fashioned and is invested in none of her aggressive teasing. Not for nothing did she give her best post-One of the Boys song, “I Do Not Hook Up,” to Kelly Clarkson; its pro-abstinence rally flies in the face of the masturbatory daydream she’s constructed. It's ironic that her best song finds her lurking behind the scenes, because Perry's greatest talent is to be a willing cog in the pop machine, delivering sleek singles like “Teenage Dream” and “Hummingbird Heartbeat” with efficiency. Isolated on the radio, the way “Hot N Cold” was in 2009, these singles will wind up obscuring the overheated and undercooked nature of Teenage Dream as a whole. Then again, the album itself is almost incidental to the self-styled fantasy that Katy Perry sells with this entire project”.
Katy Perry’s sixth studio album, Smile, was released last year. At thirty-six, she is perhaps not going to return to the sound and themes of her earlier albums; I think she has matured as an artist and we will see many more releases from her. I sort of dip in and out of her work, though I do like Teenage Dream and think that it has more to give than has been recognised. In spite of a few weaker numbers there is a lot of variety to be found. Perry definitely widened her scope and sonic reach on Teenage Dream. Maybe she was growing in confidence or felt that she needed to expand her reach. Whereas One of the Boys (2008) was more Pop and Rock in tone, Teenage Dream has Electronic asnd Disco elements in the brew. Rock is utilised more on Teenage Dream. From Soft Rock to Glam Metal, Perry manages to pull off a switch in sounds and textures. Go and listen to the album if you have not heard it before. I think that it is one of Perry’s strongest albums and, over a decade since its release, I don’t feel it has dated or comes across as ‘of its time’. One can easily listen to the album and look at modern Pop and see comparisons. Whilst it suffered from some critical disinterest, many publications placed Teenage Dream in its top-twenty/fifty albums of 2010. Billboard even ranked the album at fourteen in their greatest albums of the 2010s! Go and take a listen to a decent and interesting album from…
A modern Pop superstar.